."

"I'm afraid I have made trouble for you, sir," Patches said ruefully to
the Dean, as he briefly related the incident to his employer and to Phil
that afternoon. "I'm sorry; I really didn't stop to think."

"Trouble!" retorted the Dean, his eyes twinkling approval, while Phil
laughed joyously. "Why, man, we've been prayin' for trouble with that
blamed Tailholt Mountain outfit. You're a plumb wonder, young man. But
what in thunder was you aimin' to do with that ornery Yavapai Joe, if
he'd a' took you up on your fool proposition?"

"Really, to tell the truth," murmured Patches, "I don't exactly know. I
fancied the experiment would be interesting; and I was so sorry for the
poor chap that I--" he stopped, shamefaced, to join in the laugh.

But, later, the Dean and Phil talked together privately, with the result
that during the days that followed, as Patches and his teacher rode the
range together, the pupil found revolver practice added to his studies.

The art of drawing and shooting a "six-gun" with quickness and certainty
was often a useful part of the cowboy's training, Phil explained
cheerfully. "In the case, for instance, of a mixup with a bad steer,
when your horse falls, or something like that, you know."

[Illustration: Saddles]

CHAPTER X.

THE RODEO.

As the remaining weeks of the summer passed, Patches spent the days
riding the range with Phil, and, under the careful eye of that
experienced teacher, made rapid progress in the work he had chosen to
master. The man's intense desire to succeed, his quick intelligence,
with his instinct for acting without hesitation, and his reckless
disregard for personal injury, together with his splendid physical
strength, led him to a mastery of the details of a cowboy's work with
remarkable readiness.

Occasionally the two Cross-Triangle riders saw the men from Tailholt
Mountain, sometimes merely sighting them in the distance, and, again,
meeting them face to face at some watering place or on the range. When
it happened that Nick Cambert was thus forced to keep up a show of
friendly relations with the Cross-Triangle, the few commonplaces of the
country were exchanged, but always the Tailholt Mountain man addressed
his words to Phil, and, save for surly looks, ignored the foreman's
companion. He had evidently--as Patches had said that he would--come to
realize that he could not afford to arouse the cattlemen to action
against him, as he would certainly ha